What we need to fix:

Tuesday-January 18, 2011

What we need to fix:

Yesterday was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. I did not forget. I just thought that yesterday’s FORUM would set up my message for the week.

Dr. King was a great man. He was a leader. He was a man of peace and he is remembered for his contribution to mankind and politics in America. Not a bad way to be remembered.

Dr. King was taken away too soon. I believe that if he had lived his dream of equality would have taken on a different face. His dream of equality was based on the character of the man and not the color of the man. I believe that he would have refused to be part of the division that has occurred in this country. I don’t think that the division is based on color in as much as it is based on ideology.

Dr. King was a messenger of uplifting speech. He spoke in terms that the layman could understand and those who were in power could not refuse. This is the mark of a great man and a great leader.

This week, we celebrate his birthday and the birthday of a generation of new Americans that John F. Kennedy had spoken about in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961. What do these two men and their messages have in common? What can we take from their messages and what needs to be fixed today, because of their messages?

Both men had a drive and both men became leaders in a time when true leaders were needed. Both men were taken from their positions of leadership by the bullets of an assassin. Both were taken because of the ideology they preached. Both were taken by men that believed violence was the cure all for society’s problems. Both men left behind families that would be fatherless and a nation that did not better itself when it needed to be better. However, both men’s legacy’s still live for some.

Both men were fighting to make America better and to make it live up to its dream. Unlike leaders today, who are fighting to make America even in the world or make America get even with it greatness. This is what we need to change.

Part of the problem we have today is that 7 out of 10 Americans today were not even born when these two men either took office or became prominent in their quest for making America great.

Both men are remembered and both men vocalized the need for individual liberty and freedom. Both knew that government had its role in society and both knew that government should be limited in that role. In the years that shaped these two men, America was hardened by the violence of war and by the violence of discrimination.

Both men knew what needed to be fixed and both knew what not to change. Both wanted Americans to be self reliant and both wanted Americans to be responsible for their actions. Both wanted economic freedom and both knew liberty was born from that freedom. Kennedy lowered taxes and King raised the spirit of the America’s soul.

These are things that we forget and these are the things that we must teach our young. When I viewed the statistic today that said 7 out of 10 Americans today were not even around then, it alarmed me because of the how the history of these two men have been forgotten or has been changed to reflect the needs of today.

A new CBS News poll asked this question: “Do you think most Americans are more interested in what their country can do for them or what they can do for their country?”
79% answered the question with what their country can do for them to 15% saying what they can do for their country.

This is what needs to be fixed. The new mind set of the 7 out of 10 Americans that were not around then to see the greatness of spirit and the greatness of freedom that these two men died for will be forgotten. Just as the history of the founding of the country is now being forgotten and replaced with a new version to fit the agenda of today’s leaders, the words still live on and it is the words that we must not forget and that we must teach those that were not around.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Our leaders must be the first to be educated. Over the course of 50 short years we have made tremendous progress on some fronts. We have also made tremendous reversals in others.